Selling and Oversharing

We’ve reached our mid-point, folks. Here are the next two Tips for Social Media–

Tip Seven: Do not constantly sell your book.

This isn’t a problem for me yet since I’m unpublished, but I’ve witnessed this on Twitter and Facebook a lot. I’d recommend only posting about your book if there’s something newsworthy about it–it’s just been released, a release date is set, it’s on sale, etc. I’ve seen floating around the internet an 80/20 rule about posting–no more than 20% of your posts should be about your blog or your book; the other 80% should be things you think your readers would enjoy (and keep it brand-related as mentioned in Tip Two.)*

Also, there are other ways to drum up interest in buying your book beyond providing links to it. Try to be creative. Julia Quinn is excellent at taking quotes from her books and asking readers to identify which book the passage came from. J.R. Ward gives short excerpts from upcoming novels, and readers love her for it. Maybe you could show a picture of the man who inspired your hero and see if readers can guess which hero or which book you used him.

Tip Eight: Make sure that any information you share about yourself you’re comfortable with.

Once information is out there, it’s out there. So, pause a moment to reflect upon whether you want certain pictures or information about yourself out there for ANYONE to see for ALL TIME. For instance, I won’t post names or pictures of my children anywhere. That’s not something I want out there in the universe. Other writers, however, feel the opposite, which is cool. In any event, when you think about your “brand”; think about not only what’s part of your brand but also what is off-limits.

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*One place where I saw the 80/20 rule mentioned in Tip Seven is this interview of Frances Caballo. There’s great information here about social media for writers!Guy Kawasaki, however, suggests that no more than 10% of your social media should promote your book or commercial endeavors. I think if you go over 10%, that’s when you need to get really creative in how you do it.